Update: The Evolution of the Vision and Where I'm At on the Road to It
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share how the vision I originally articulated has been evolving and also where I’m at with it.
I think in my last update I said I would be tackling Python. That was certainly my intention. But when I started in on it, I felt a strong pull to first take time to create a bona fide design system for the chart and report designs I use. I understood that, in part, the reason was because having a design system in place would give me the context I needed to better understand what I was learning in Python. After finishing, I felt a rewarding sense of accomplishment, the very thing I needed. It gave me my first solid sense of grounding, an experience that shifted my vision from feeling like an impossible pipedream to something that is possible.
Below, I’ve included a screenshot of the various designs I’ve created. I anticipate having to make lots of tweaks and even overhalls to these designs to adapt them to a web environment, but I feel pleased with what I’ve created and feel I’ve laid down an important foundation for the next step.
Completing the design system has also led to the details of the vision becoming more clear. The dream that is taking shape is a wordpress.org-type environment where people can create their own workspaces using customized themes built on top of the core calculations engine. Like with wordpress, I envision people being able to share their themes with others, either as free templates or for a price. I also envision a program that is optimized for research for those who want to pursue that avenue in astrology.
I think it would be cool if there could be a marketplace where people can offer their astrology tokens, like sign and planet glyphs, for others to use, either for free or for a fee according to what the creator wants. I also think it would be cool if there were a community where people could share their research and research ideas.
In addition to the marketplace, the structure of the program I am envisioning together with the open source nature of it opens up the possibility for the emergence of a cottage industry of developers interested in consulting with astrologers to help them create the look and feel and functionality they want for their individual astrology needs and desires. Even cooler would be for astrologers to be able to do this for themselves.
The catch there is that astrologers would need to know programming to create what they want to create. Although that will likely change with AI continuing to evolve, for now I think it’s still more true than not. And even if it weren’t, I think it’s wise to learn how to program, just as I think it’s wise to learn how to calculate charts by hand even if you don’t need to do it in your daily practice. As I am learning as I go, knowing how things work provides invaluable insight and deepens understanding.
It is for all these reasons that my long term goal continues to be to create a multidisciplinary astrology course that includes programming. Focusing first on creating the program will give me the knowledge and experience I need to effectively teach others how to do it. It will also provide an avenue for generating income and will give me what I need to do my astrology work more efficiently. On that latter front, currently, I calculate charts from raw data so that I can use my own phase wheels to read them. Having a program that can calculate and print them out will be a great help.
Regarding the design possibilities that I plan to build into the program, a subtext of this whole project is becoming, “Make astrology beautiful.” But the goal is more than just superficial beauty. For me, the effort to make aesthetically pleasing astrology designs, whether or not I succeeded in that regard, has helped me to better learn astrology.
Thus, the vision to make astrology beautiful is part of a more comprehensive vision to foster and faciliate the learning of astrology for those who are interested. It also serves the purpose of facilitating research in that beautiful designs have the ability to convey complex information and concepts in digestible, readily understandable ways. Finally, for those who aren’t interested in learning astrology but appreciate consultations to help them understand their charts, beautiful designs can make it easier to communicate astrological concepts.
The Path Forward
At this stage, the path forward is to learn Python and possibly astronomical algorithms (more on that below). With Python, I will be able to build a basic ephemeris. Having an ephemeris program completed will be super helpful in using the designs I created. While I will still need to draw them up by hand in Figma, I won’t have to calculate the planet positions from raw data, as I currently do.
From my current vantage point, after I create the ephemeris, the next step will be to program the various chart breakdowns, like elements, modalities, essential dignities, aspects, and more. After that, the work will be to program the graphical interface for displaying planet positions on wheels and rendering the various chart datasets on visually appealing graphics. The final step will be to write the theme layer of the program, allowing people to tap into it to create their own themes.
Once this work is complete, I can begin the work of creating the multidisciplinary coursework I have envisioned. That coursework will be designed to ensure that, if you want to, you can create your own astrology program from scratch or build on top of the one I create, whichever you prefer. The idea is to free us all from dependence so that we can become true creative partners in this world without the feeling of being siloed and left on our own to figure things out for ourselves without the skills, knowledge, or tools to do so.
To reframe what I just shared as milestones, the path looks like this:
Milestone 1: learn Python
Milestone 2: create ephemeris
Milestone 3: create chart breakdown data tables
Milestone 4: learn javascript (and revisit HTML and CSS)
Milestone 5: create graphical interface for generating charts and graphics
Milestone 6: write theme layer part of program
Milestone 7: marketplace
Milestone 8: software as service (for income)
Milestone 9: multidisciplinary course
For writing the calculation program for generating the ephemeris and other chart data, I have the option to use existing Python libraries or write the calculations from scratch. The benefit of using the libraries is that they are freely available and others have already done the hard work of writing up the calculations. However, they also come with copyright considerations. While completely understandable, they may restrict my ability to offer the program as I would prefer to. Since the impetus for this vision came from encountering copyright restrictions and a desire to make things easier for myself and others in that regard, my preference would be to learn the calculations and write the program from scratch. I also prefer to know how to do things, so learning the calculations would satisfy that preference, also. The downside of this option is that it will require more time and some money to buy the resources that teach the calculations. But I feel it will be worth it if I can make it work.
So that’s the vision as it currently stands and some of the practical considerations. Because I am only one person, and, currently, a little limited due to illness, and because I have Astrology Journal to also tend to, it will take time to complete these foundational steps. But it feels good to have completed the first step (design system) and to have a much clearer picture of the path and the belief that I can do it. Now that I have a solid map for bringing it into being, I will be working to realize it one step at a time.
While I know from experience that creative projects have their own life and trajectory, my hope for this project is that it evolves into a community endeavor. However, my work at this stage is to be the steward of it, not the decider of it. Currently, it feels like the most important thing I can do is focus on establishing the core architecture and then see how the project evolves. I look forward to sharing more as it evolves in these early stages and trust that it will become exactly what it needs to become.